this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2023
76 points (98.7% liked)
Linux
48008 readers
1602 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Lotus was so intent on protecting their revenue stream from software piracy that they built copy protection into the program. If the program was copied from one drive to another, it would not run. So if one bought a new computer or if the hard drive failed, the program could not be transferred to a new drive. The first versions of the software were pretty buggy too. I always visualized a Lotus company with a few programmers and many lawyers. They finally included a floppy disk that would allow a very limited number of copies, but still a PITA.